May 4
Bernard Lamotte, New York City Rainy Night Street Scene in Blue, 1950s. Oil on canvas.
Lamotte was a Frenchman who moved to New York in 1935. His atelier was located above what later became the restaurant La Grenouille (now closed), where fellow expatriate French artists and famed New York personalities congregated, including Greta Garbo, Charlie Chaplin, and Marlene Dietrich. The studio he and his wife shared became a bohemian haven and came to be known as Le Bocal ("The Fishbowl").
Photo: 1st Dibs
